Always Gold
by ScarletBitch
Summary: Slash. Don't like, don't read. A modern day AU. Loki runs away from home when he is eighteen. Thor has never stopped looking. Ten years later Loki is is caught by Thor and his guitar.


Drumming his fingers over his lips Loki looks over the current placements of the new temporary exhibit. Getting these Frida Kahlo paintings hadn't taken to much persuasion on his part. But then again, Loki did have quite a way with words. He chuckled to himself and glanced over at the other two interns.  
Sam and Connor had begrudgingly congratulated Loki earlier on this accomplishment; Loki had a momentary bask in their soured attitude. Mr. Jameson, the Curator, had showered him with continuous praise throughout the week, and with the subtlety of a bulldozer, hinted that the open Assistant Curator position may very well be presented to Loki. Though he had no intention of taking the position, Loki more than enjoyed flaunting Mr. Jameson's praise in front of the other staff members that had been jumping for said position.  
After grabbing his bag and sweater form underneath the information booth's desk, Loki bid farewell to the disgruntled interns while he swaggered out the front doors. With high spirits Loki hustled down the steps with the singular goal of celebratory margaritas for a week well done.  
Right before his foot hit the last step he heard a husky voice call out his name.  
"_Loki…_"  
He felt as if his heart stopped beating. His foot slide off the step and he stumbled onto the side walk. There was hesitance in the voice. As if it wasn't sure, yet utterly hopeful.  
But Loki…  
Loki was sure. He hadn't heard that voice in 10 years but he was sure.  
The span between the one heart beat and the next stretched through millennia.  
Straightening up his body to its full height, Loki turned on his heel to meet the eyes of Thor Odinson, his once brother. The blonde man's eyes burned Loki with their hopefulness and genuine excitement.  
Not sure what to do, Loki stood there. Letting those electric blue eyes drink him whole. But his skin felt tight, too tight, like it was pulled to thin over his frame. He thought that maybe his skin would split. It'd split and something new would emerge from his body.  
Maybe a bird.  
A raven.  
So he could fly far away from Odinson's heavy gaze.  
"Brother…" Thor's words clipped Loki's would be wings and he was grounded once again.  
Loki thought of correcting Thor. _I'm not your brother._ _I never was. _He thought to say. But he knew it was pointless. Thor would always see him as his brother. The fool.  
"Thor," Loki managed to choke out in a passive enough voice. "To what do I owe this wonderful surprise of a visit?" He asked dryly while running a hand through his hair. "It's been, what, ten years?"  
Thor began his decent down the few stairs that separated them. Loki's eye scraped across Thor's figure. The years have been kind enough to him, thirty-one years old and he was still as fit as he was while on the High School Rugby team. He was wearing a flattering red flannel shirt with faded jeans. His hair was shoulder length and looked disheveled, like it hasn't seen a comb in quite some time. On his back was a guitar case. Loki frowned. He didn't recall his brother being musically inclined.  
"Yes, ten years." Thor said as he stepped onto the sidewalk. His boots knocked Loki's dress shoes, too close for comfort but Loki didn't back down. With crossed arms and a stern gaze he met Thor face to face.  
He didn't outwardly flinch when the blonde placed his large calloused hand against the side of Loki's face. He didn't flinch, he continued to hold Thor's gaze. But on the inside Loki imagined his face was burning under the touch.  
"I have missed you." Thor whispered his voice heavy and even huskier than earlier.  
The burning sensation continued even after Thor trailed his hand to the back of Loki's neck, into his hair.  
But it was also then that Loki all but stumbled back to break free from the touch. His cheek slowly cooled as he gaged Thor's disappointment on the younger's retreat.  
Inwardly sighing Loki stiffed-up his posture once more. "I need a drink."

Loki ended up taking Thor a pub a few blocks away from the art museum. They sat in a corner booth where the light would flicker occasionally. It shouldn't bother Loki as much as it did. He kept glancing up from his rum and coke and giving the light a glare. After a minute of the younger's constant glaring, Thor took it upon himself to reach up and tighten the light bulb, it immediately stopped flickering. With no more distractions Loki downed his drink before bringing up the topic at hand.  
"Why are you here?"  
Thor put down his glass of water, which Loki thought a bit strange, here they were at a pub and the blonde man ordered water. The raven haired man could have sworn Thor would have at least order a beer.  
A bitter taste tickled Loki's mouth.  
Ten years is a long time.  
_I guess I don't really know him anymore.  
But that means he knows even less about me than he claimed to all those years ago.  
_"I have missed you." Thor answers without a moment's thought. A simple enough answer. But Loki didn't take it as such.  
"So you've said" Loki retorts. He frowns at his empty glass, flags down a waiter and orders a second.  
He didn't speak till his drink arrived. Surprisingly enough neither did Thor. He waited patiently for Loki's next question.  
Patient. Not a word he'd use to describe his _brother_.  
Ignoring the strange feeling that accompanied that word, Loki sipped his drink, trying to make it last this time and pursued his next thought.  
"How did you find me?" Now this was the question to ask. When Loki left, he made sure he was as untraceable as possible. His caution, his paranoia, had worked for ten years and now…  
Now, he's been caught.  
The blonde reached into his back pocket and pulled out, what appeared to be, a rolled up newspaper.  
Loki unrolled it after it was set in front of him and saw it was indeed a newspaper. It was the college's newspaper, the college that ran the museum he was interning at. The article on the front was about the Van Goh Live exhibit they had a month ago. If it wasn't circled in red pen Loki would have missed the detail entirely; but in the background of the picture was the relatively fuzzy frame of Loki.  
He stared in disbelief. There was no way clueless Thor was able to discern this was Loki.  
Thor began explaining the discovery, "I had brought some of the pictures of us together as children to some forensic artists and they put together these rough sketches," he placed a notebook on the table, "of what you'd look like over the years." Loki began looking through the worn out notebook. And sure enough, there were sketches of his profile, one for each year since he left. Loki was in utter shock. He thought this was all some warped nightmare. There was no way Thor could have gone through all of this. This was only something you'd see in a movie or cheesy detective show.  
The hand placed over his pulled Loki from his thoughts. The hand was warm and calloused, and the burning sensation from earlier returned to him.  
"Loki," Thor said, his eyes were so blue and they stared into Loki's emerald orbs, "I have never stopped looking for you."  
He stared into Thor's blue eyes for a heartbeat more before he withdrew his hand back towards him.  
"You forget, Thor, I did not wish to be found. Not by anyone and especially not by you."  
Thor's blue eyes did not waiver as he pulled back his notebook and the newspaper. His big hands moved around them like they were something precious, something fragile.  
"I know."

The silence they sat in stretched unto Loki's third drink. His head was starting to feel lighter, he'd need to leave soon. He glanced over at Thor who was intently watching who seemed to be the Manager and a worker arguing over something. Loki couldn't understand their words from where he sat. Maybe he should stop drinking. Getting drunk around Thor was the last thing he wanted.  
Suddenly Thor stood and grabbed his guitar case. "Wait here," he said and walked over to the two men.  
Loki bristled at Thor's authoritative tone. Who was he to tell Loki what to do? Offended, Loki slammed some bills on the table and got up to leave.  
Before he made it to the door he spotted Thor walk onto the pubs stage. Loki had been here enough to know they held small performances here on occasion.  
Loki saw the man he thought to be the Manager from earlier standing by the stage and looking relieved.  
Apparently tonight's original act had bailed and the Manager had been fretting over it. And well Thor wasn't someone to ignore any problem he could assist in anyway.  
At least that much of his brother hadn't changed.  
The raven haired man decided to linger in the pub a little longer. The curiosity he held over his brother and that guitar rooted him to the floor.  
Thor glanced into the small gathering of people now accumulating near the small stage. His eyes found Loki standing in the back.  
Thor smiled.  
"My name is Thor Odinson, lead singer and guitar for the band 'For Asgard' and I wrote this song with someone special in mind." Thor's eyes never left Loki's not even after he started playing.  
Loki was utterly shocked when Thor's voice rose in a sort of croon. He kept his face straight but on the inside he felt his heart race.

"_As heavy as a history book can be,  
I will carry it with me, oh Lord,  
And maybe when the bitterness has gone,  
There'll be sweetness on our tongues once more_"

Loki stayed grounded to the dirty floorboards of the pub even though Thor's voice lifted him so.  
Loki Laufeyson stayed till the end of the song, and then when the last chord faded, he fled.


End file.
